Mind, God, and Consciousness

by Robert Wilkinson

Since it's been a while since I offered you anything from the remarkable Magic of Space,, I thought I'd give you something interesting for your perusal this weekend. This piece is from Chapter 1, Creative Space, where we find an interesting take on the nature of mind, consciousness, and God, for lack of a better word. And so, from a much broader point of view than we usually consider:

...Therefore when we use the term Universal Consciousness, or Divine Mind, we mean that which comprehends, embodies, and includes all that we call consciousness - individualized or otherwise. We mean all that is visible or invisible, known or unknown; all that can be seen, touched, handled, or sensed. All that can be apprehended - All is God. The Universal Mind consists of two portions - the manifested, and the unmanifested. The manifested portion can be apprehended by the human mind, but that which is unmanifested cannot be apprehended.

There is a "plus" element which is always above and beyond that which is manifested. This "plus" element we shall not attempt to explain, since the greatest occultists have been unable to fathom much of Its nature. The two portions of the Universal Mind, in oriental literature, are designated Yang and Yin. This is symbolized by the Korean flag, which is composed of a circle divided by a spiral line, representing Divine Cosmic Energy. It also represents the energy described in the Yoga Upanishads, and in some of the Puranas. Other references may be found in the works of the Mohammedan Sutras; in particular, in the "RISALA-I-HAQ-NUMA," by Prince Mahomed Dara Shikoh.

From man's point of view, the manifested portion of the Universal Mind consists of two parts, the visible and the invisible; and yet each of these is only a condition, a part or diversity, of the complete unity of the Universal Consciousness. Upon the visible plane of manifestation, Divine Mind, or Consciousness, expresses Itself in the two great forms which are popularly known as force and matter. While we do know that matter is the hypothetical substance of physical phenomena, physically we can actually know very little of either force or matter, since this objective world is on the plane of effects.

Matter is divided into two great portions, the particled and the unparticled. The particled portion comes forth from the unparticled as a precipitation of it. If you place a pan of water outside your window when the temperature of the atmosphere is below freezing point, you will find that gradually there is a lowering of the rate of the vibrations of the atoms which compose the water, until there comes a crystalline formation within the pan. Most of the water in the pan is still fluidic, but there are now also these crystalline formations, and we have therefore both the particled and the unparticled portions in the pan. In a like manner, these two forms of matter are forever seen throughout Nature during a period of manifestation, or evolution, and it is the particled portion of matter that science has agreed to call atoms. Concerning the nature of the atom, the physicists agree that logically and necessarily there must be an ultimate element, and this produces the phenomenon which we call physical life.